Four easy ways to make coffee when camping

If you’re as much of a caffeine addict as I am, a strong cup of the black stuff is probably your morning essential on even the wildest forays into the great outdoors. These four easy methods make cooking up hot coffee on camping trips easy peasy.

How to make coffee when camping

Filter papers
The lightest option for backpacking and wild camping, filter papers (like these, £1.20) are designed for coffee machines but you can simply stick them in your cup, add coffee and carefully pour hot water over gradually for a java fix. If you find them fiddly to use, try plastic filter cups, which slot over the top of your mug. You can also buy reusable coffee filters like this one, £0.99 – a more eco-friendly option.

Aeropress
They may look like something you’d see sitting on the counter in a hipster cafe but Aeropresses are actually great for camping – these tube-shaped wonders are cheap (this one comes in at £21.50), portable and quick to use. Simply heat up water on a stove, add coffee and water, stir and plunge coffee into a cup.

Coffee bags
You can buy readymade coffee bags to use just like teabags – a simple yet genius idea. A pack of bags like this one for £2.60 will do you 18 cups. Or you could make your own little coffee bombs by sticking a tablespoon full of coffee grounds in a filter paper and tying up the top with unflavoured dental floss or waterproof thread.

Cowboy coffee
Make old-timey cowboy coffee by boiling water in a pot or tin kettle over the campfire, adding a tablespoon of coffee per person and letting it all stew together. Stir with a cold spoon and then tap the pot a few times to get the grounds to settle, then pour out carefully into mugs.

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2 Comments

Anna

May 3, 2017 / 9:12 pm

I have to say coffee tastes so much better in the outdoors! We bought a french press kit for our windboiler but it turned out to be a huge mess because we always had to wash out the grounds. Now, we recently purchased a tiny collapsible drip filter holder (we got this one on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2pylY0Y) and it’s been a bliss!
The only downside is that you have to make cups one by one.